Director's Message

Director's Message

“If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children,” said Confucius. What if one plans for 200 years or for more? The benevolent Fr Muller of happy memory had only one plan: compassionate care for the poor. This turned out to be an eternal plan. 1880 was a sunrise year for the coastal town of Mangalore. Fr Augustus Keith Muller landed on the shores of Mangalore with a prescription of heal and comfort, love and care for the suffering humanity. When he started dispensing medicine under a banyan tree, it was just a simple and noble thought – one human being thinking good about another. Since 1880, this very noble thought has been carried down with unwavering dedication. The mission of heal and comfort was time and again attuned to the challenges of the day.

Founded in 1880, Father Muller Charitable Institutions (FMCI) is one of the oldest and most established teaching hospital networks in Mangalore. Today, the following complementary service centers reside under Father Muller Charitable Institutions:

FMCI exists to serve the needs of the poor, marginalized, and otherwise disadvantaged people of Karnataka and northern Kerala and provides healthcare services to those in need regardless of religion, caste, gender or ethnicity. Over 70 percent of these services offered either free of charge or heavily subsided. FMCI also conducts “health camps” in Mangalore’s surrounding communities who are unable to travel or cannot afford traditional clinic based medical care.

We consider Patient Care is to be achieved by collaboration with those who care for the patient, both in the College and the Community where he lives, adopting a holistic approach founded on Scientific and Research findings. We promote education of the highest quality in the Art and Science of Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health Sciences and other related professions instilling Human, Ethical, Spiritual and Christian values. We look for excellence not only in professional skills but also in attitude and character in everyone, upholding respect for life, dignity of the human person and a genuine feeling of compassion for patients, their attendants and families. The free care given this year 2016-2017 by the Institution is to the tune of Rs.29 crores.

Today, the hospital consists of two medical and one nursing college, with over 3,000 students and 600 doctors. Together, the Father Muller hospital system treats a variety of diseases and ailments. The Institute reaches deep into Karnataka’s surrounding communities through three urban health centers, seven rural health care facilities and ten health clinics in rural areas. The key objective of FMCI has been to provide complete and comprehensive health care with state-of-the- art facilities to patients who come here. Young doctors and nurses receive this message of compassionate care during their medical and nursing education here.

At FMCI, we believe a lack of basic health and medical care is a consequence of extreme poverty. Indeed, extreme poverty is society’s moral failing. Hence modern and advanced societies have a moral obligation to provide the less fortunate with basic medical care and cures. FMCI also believes that by fulfilling this need we enhance human dignity and offer hope to the needy. FMCI is known to the public primarily as a research and teaching hospital with programs that help the poor throughout Mangalore and the surrounding region. What is not immediately evident is that these programs to the poor are an integral part of our services. By placing the rural poor at the center of our service,

FMCI is able to:
1) provide services to those who need it most;
2) provide exposure and experience to medical students;
3) support the Catholic church’s outreach to the poor in the community; and,
4) help FMCI acquire data and knowledge about the community that can support the growth of healthcare infrastructure.